2019 Quality Improvement Symposium

3rd Annual Unified Quality Improvement Symposium

Hosted by The REACH Initiative and Vidant Health Quality Office 
East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU 
February 6, 2019

The Third Annual Unified Quality Improvement Symposium was held on Feb. 6 at the East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University. The Symposium showcased 39 projects related to quality improvement, patient safety, population health and interprofessional practice from ECU and Vidant Health.

With more than 180 people in attendance, the symposium provided health sciences faculty, residents, fellows and students, as well as Vidant Health physicians and employees, the opportunity to present their quality improvement work to an audience of peers and health system leaders.

Award Winning Presentations

Podium

1st Place: 
Dr. Jennifer Sutter, ECU’s Department of Pediatrics
“ECU Physicians Pediatric Endocrinology New Patient Referrals: Streamlining the Referral Process to Improve Patient Access.”

2nd place: 
Dr. John Kohler, ECU’s Department of Pediatrics and Cindy Keel, of Vidant Medical Center
“Improving Mobilization Orders in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients as part of PICU Up!TM implementation in a rural, academic, combined PICU.”

3rd place: 
Sherrill Beamon and Libbe Sasser, both of whom are from Vidant Edgecombe Hospital
“Reducing the Spread of MRSA and C. Diff in a Community Hospital.”

Poster

1st Place: 
Anna Laughman, fourth-year medical student and LINC Scholar
“A Quality Improvement Project Focused on Diabetic Foot Exam Screening Rates in the ECU Outpatient Med-Peds Clinic.”

2nd Place: 
Amber Whitley, second-year medical student and LINC Scholar
“Reducing Cryoprecipitate and Plasma Waste at Vidant Medical Center.”

3rd Place: 
Samantha Curtis, third-year medical student and LINC Scholar,
“Bilirubin Turnaround Time in an Outpatient Pediatric Clinic: Improving Efficiency of Time-Sensitive Lab Results.”

Concurrent Learning Sessions

For the first time, this year’s symposium offered three concurrent learning sessions. Quality 2020 was led by Dr. Joan Wynn and Lou Reida, both of whom are from Vidant Health’s quality office. During the session, participants identified quality priorities and strategies to help inform the Enterprise Quality Plan for 2020. In the Practical Application of Common Quality Improvement Tools, led by Dr. John Kohler, ECU’s Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Tim Reeder, ECU’s Department of Emergency Medicine, and Amy Campbell, Quality Nurse Specialist III at Vidant Medical Center, attendees utilized quality improvement tools to analyze and develop a process improvement plan for a rea-life scenario. The Transforming Quality Initiatives into Scholarship session led by Dr. Danielle Walsh, ECU’s Department of Surgery, taught attendees how to transform their quality improvement efforts into scholarly products to advance their professional and academic career.

Keynote Speaker

James H. Johnson Jr., PhD—William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Director, Urban Investment Strategies Center, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

James H. Johnson Jr. is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. His research interests include community and economic development, the effects of demographic changes on the U.S. workplace, interethnic minority conflict in advanced industrial societies, urban poverty and public policy in urban America, and workforce diversity issues. Dr. Johnson and Dr. John D. Kasarda coauthored “The Economic Impact of the African American Population on the State of North Carolina” and a study on the economic impact of North Carolina’s Hispanic population. With support from the Russell Sage Foundation, Dr. Johnson published research on the economic impact of Sept. 11 on U.S. metropolitan communities. Currently he is researching the economic and employment impact of white collar job shifts offshore on U.S. competitiveness. Dr. Johnson examines the causes and consequences of growing inequality in American society, particularly as it affects socially and economically disadvantaged youth; entrepreneurial approaches to poverty alleviation, job creation, and community development; inter-ethnic minority conflict in advanced industrial societies; and business demography and workforce diversity issues. Fast Company profiled him in “Hopes and Dreams.” He has published more than 100 scholarly research articles and three research monographs and has co-edited four theme issues of scholarly journals on these and related topics. His latest book is “Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angles.” He received his PhD from Michigan State University, his MS from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his BS from North Carolina Central University.